


Thoughts and Clocks

by Control_Room



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Domestic, Family, Fluff, Gentle, M/M, New Year's Kiss, New Years, soft, trail of thought
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:34:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22078546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Control_Room/pseuds/Control_Room
Summary: It's almost midnight.
Relationships: Joey Drew/Henry Stein
Comments: 5
Kudos: 13





	Thoughts and Clocks

Henry’s fingers gently carded through nebulous strands of white and blue. Since the third restart, Johan’s hair seemed healthier - not too white, the india ink blue more vibrant. Delight of domesticity delved deep down into his being, a solemn and sweet tang of stability and safety with every single soft sweep.

Joey was, in Henry’s perception, not exactly home, but… how could one explain? It was in Joey’s nature, the roving, always moving, active, jumpy part of him, the part that made him not home, but all of the insane thrills of adventure, anticipation, and all manners of creation, rolled into a compact seven and a half feet. 

A moving home? 

Well, it mattered not to Henry, no matter how ludacris the situation would become, no matter how hectic or despairing, Joey would leap up and into the fray, as though he actually could turn the tides of fate, and yet… yet… he had. Many times.

The scrawny, lanky, morally imbalanced fool, challenging demons beyond human perception of reality - how  _ can  _ there possibly be a fourth dimension (not another universe, but a dimension outside of one’s own), just out of sight, just out of reach?

How can one take those head on, headstrong and arm weak, how can one do so and expect (or not expect) to live to tell the tale to long dead friends?

How can one expect to bring those friends back into the world of the living?

Above all else, how can one go back in time, and retain their memories?

Looking back at it all, Henry had to admit to himself that it all seemed quite fantasmical, and he would agree with anyone that all that was just jibber jabber, had he not lived it himself.

Linda walked by them, talking loudly with Marina, until Henry shushed them quickly, and they noticed Joey sprawled out on the couch, blueprints scattered about the room, a few drained mugs of what had probably been very caffeinated tea boiled in energy drinks, and the late hour on the face of the clock. The two girls went into the kitchen, Marina calling her father and letting him know she would be spending the night with Linda, and then the two of them tramped to Linda’s room, giggling the whole while, excited to spend the night together.

It was a special night, after all. Not too special, but out of the ordinary nonetheless. And so close to midnight, already.

Hands running through cloudy blue skies.

Henry felt a smile tug on his lips as Joey shuffled around in his sleep, his fingers tapping codes to some unknown rhythm. Henry had once asked how those codes do not manifest into the world, because Johan would be thinking and typing them, even if he was inhibited by sleep. After thinking for a moment, Joey asked Henry if he acted out his dreams in full. No, of course he did not. Paralysis during REM sleep prevented that. Joey told him that it was the same case.

Fascinating.

Simply fascinating.

Henry closed his eyes as he let his hand wander, listening and taking in all the sounds of the house, from the quiet drips of pipes down below to Boris’ soft snores from his top bunk. Johan’s apartment had been upgraded, so to speak, part of the ceiling boosted to create a loft just over eight feet tall, for Johan to be able to enter, and more importantly because they had no idea how tall the toon kids might grow. And that loft was where the kid’s bedrooms were - the toon’s and Linda’s, when she and Henry stayed over, which seemed to be happening more and more frequently. Not that either of them minded in the slightest. Well, they did, just plainly not in the bad way of minding. The good kind, the quiet acknowledgement of closeness becoming even closer. 

Henry opened his eyes, and blushed slightly as he noticed that his hand had slipped to Johan’s waist, gently trailing over the curve. 

He did not remove his hand, but stopped moving it. He did not want to wake Joey, not yet at least, just another five minutes until he would. Even though he was unsure if he even should wake Johan - after all, it was the first time he had gotten some shut eye in the past week, having virtually overdosed himself on synthetic energy. Still….

Still, Henry picked Joey’s face up, bonking their foreheads together, not enough to hurt, but enough to be felt.

“Joey….” Henry murmured, watching his eyelids flutter as he struggled with his sleep, flinching in and out of it. “Come on. Wake up.”

“M’wake,” Joey lied, turning over to cuddle himself against Henry’s lap, curling around him to sap that lovely heat. “Whassit?”

“Joey, do you know what day it is?” Henry asked. Johan glanced at him with a bleary eye, yawning to reveal sharp and white teeth. “You know what day it is.”

“Thursday.”

“Not like that, Jo,” Henry laughed. Joey’s ears flicked back, but his eyes betrayed his curiosity. “Like, a special day.”

“Bloodletting day?”

“What the hell,” Henry was genuinely surprised, but then remembered Johan’s rearing. “No, this isn't Night Vale, Joey. Think more universal.”

Johan paused, thinking.

He looked up at him with big eyes. 

“I dunno.”

“Oh, dammit, Johan, you do,” Henry rolled his eyes with a softhearted chuckle. “Why did we give everyone a day off for tomorrow?”

“Uh…” Johan stared at him. “Um….”

“New Year's, Jo, New Year's,” Henry smiled, running his hand through Johan’s hair as that spark of realization crossed into him. “There you go.”

“Oh!” Joey smiled back at him, and Henry could feel his heart jump. “Happy New Year, Henry!”

“Not quite yet,” Henry told him. Then the clock chimed, and he chuckled. “Ok, now it is.”

He pulled Joey close, leaning in. 

  
“Happy New Year, Johan,” he said softly, before kissing him gently.

By the way Joey smiled, Henry knew it would be a good year.


End file.
